Guide To Making The Ultimate Cannabis E-Liquid

March 2015 Note: This guide is out of date and has been replaced by a new method I’ve outlined in my post here. The latest guide results in an even more potent product so I highly recommend giving it a go instead!

Due to its convenience and discreetness, vaping cannabis e-liquid has become wildly popular in recent months, with all kinds of people (celebrities included!) getting on board. A little while ago, I published my original DIY thc e-liquid guide, and since then it has received much fanfare (I’ve had several e-mails from readers telling me that they’ve had great results using this method!). Although this process is a great way to make your own cannabis e-liquid, I’ve discovered a more advanced process in which to extract THC into e-juice, and thought I’d share my recipe here with you guys! Using this method to make cannabis e-liquid results in a more efficient extraction of the active chemicals in your bud, and the result is a more potent e-liquid. However, because this method involves heating alcohol, make sure that you follow the guide properly and keep your workspace well ventilated. I am not responsible for any mishaps that may arise from following this guide, so please use caution and proceed with care!

What You’ll Need

EJMix

6 grams of good quality cannabis (you can use more or less, but this is what I find works well for me). I imagine you can also use a lot of shake and trimmings, but I’ve only tested with bud.

High proof grain alcohol (such as Everclear or Alcool). Do Not use Isopropyl (rubbing alcohol)!

2 mason jars

Pack of 5ml dropper bottles

Cheese Cloth

Baking sheet, aluminum foil, and an oven

Cooking pot

The Guide

Decarboxylation is an important step so don’t skip it!

The first step is to decarboxylate your cannabis. Decarboxylation is necessary in order convert the THC-A in fresh cannabis to THC (a process that normally happens through combustion or vaporization), and because e-liquid vaporization temperatures may not get hot enough to do this, decarboxylation is a good idea. Place some aluminum foil on a baking sheet and then spread your freshly ground bud (the finer the better) evenly on the foil. Next, place it in the oven for at 225-250F for 15 minutes. After this your bud should be pretty dry (and possibly a little brown).

High proof alcohol works well for this

The next step is to take your decarboxylated bud, place it in a mason jar, and then add some high proof everclear until your bud is just a little bit more than covered by the alcohol (don’t put a top on the jar). Next, fill a pot with about 1.5 inches (3.8cm) of water, and place the mason jar in the pot. This creates a double boilwhich prevents you from overheating the alcohol (which is highly flammable!). Next, turn on your stove vent (and maybe open a window for good measure) so that your stove is well ventilated for the next step.

In this step, you want to boil off some of the alcohol while continually stirring your cannabis. While you do this, you’re cooking the bud and the alcohol soaks up THC and other psychoactive compounds. Boil off just enough alcohol so that your bud is still submerged, but not to excess. The liquid should get fairly dark as the alcohol absorbs the active ingredients, and the more bud you use in the recipe, the darker the liquid should turn.

Make sure to use some good bud

After you’ve boiled off some of the alcohol, add more to your jar (enough to return it to its original level or even a bit higher). Now you want to filter your product, so grab some cheese cloth and cover your second jar with it. Then pour your mixture into the second jar, and make sure to squeeze as much alcohol as you can out of the bud. Reboil some water with the new jar in it, but make sure not to create a big difference in temperature between the glass jar and water or you risk cracking it! Now boil off the everclear a second time, this time taking it down to about 5ml of liquid (use a syringe to measure how much you have left in the jar).

The V2 Pro Series 3 can vape e-liquids. The EvoD also works well with the proper cartridge.

Finally, add the propylene glycol (PG) to your mix. I added about 20ml to bring the total volume of my mix to 25ml, which is somewhere around 6 grams of cannabis condensed into 25ml of e-liquid. The liquid should end up a dark greenish brown color, and you can dilute it with more PG (or even food grade vegetable glycerin if you prefer that). Finally, you have the choice of either continuing to heat the mix to get rid of the remaining everclear, or filter it again and give it a try. Some people like to skip this step as they like how the alcohol thins out the PG, giving a better flavor to the mix.

This process is a little more intensive than my other guide, and I only recommend performing it if you have access to a well ventilated kitchen and are experienced with these types of extractions. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to contact me and let me know!

36 thoughts on “Guide To Making The Ultimate Cannabis E-Liquid”

hey, do you still not recommend using isoprop and if not why not I’m about to try this but cant get everclear. If iso is purer alcohol then isn’t that going to be more effective at exctracting the key compounds?

i’ve seen a few recipes that use isoprop but you have made me paranoid haha.

Im confused about the oven stage… surely heating weed that much (til brown) actually just evaporates the THC leaving nothing but CBD in your product? Wouldn’t using weed already vaped in a conventional weed vape (like a Magicflight Launchbox, for example) make more sense? Seems like the THC is getting wasted here…

I hope your still alive bro, man, fuck this world, it isn’t fair at all. I really hope there is God, but from what I see, there might be just darkness..
I hope everyone of you have a long fun life and a quick calm death, peace my Bros. Love you all!

Tried to make this stuff and put it in an o pen in a fillable 5ml cartridge… the stuff burns my throat and when I exhale, nothing comes out… but when I use a pre-filled cartridge made for it, i see the cloud when I exhale. Why is my throat burning and why am I not seeing a cloud when I exhale? And it makes a burning sound when I hit it, yet the profiled ones have no burning sound. Something is wrong here… somebody please give me the answers I need

Mmm, Bro, i recommend you to use a rda, simply a drippinf atomizer, because in a normal tank atomizer the liquid is maybe too dense to get soaked in to the coil, but with dripping u can burn every king of liquid easily

Lol dont use achoel just use propalene glycol or vegetable glycerin and put that in a double boiler with you bud, kief or shake and let it boil till its really dark after time youll realize when its done let it cool down then enjoy

Tried this method, lots of work, not very potent THC ejuice out come. If you’re a Canadian, buy THCjoy ejuice on THCjoy.com, very potent THCejuice. 1-3 puff and you’re good with THCjoy.com ejuice. The method you’re describing is good, but usually takes 15-30 puff for a little buzz. Thank your for you’re blog Mr. Vape

Define “normal”…….
Pre made coils are crap and I wouldn’t recommend anyone beside a noob to use them until they figure out the world of vape. I wouldn’t waste a cannibas ejuice in those either. Get a half decent RDA with sub ohm could so you can crank it up, drip it flat out and blow huge clouds.
Why wouldn’t it work in a normal box mod? Mech and VV/VW do the same thing only 1 is regulated by a chip and the other isn’t….of course it would work with either.